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Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Just a quick post to share a couple of the note-cards I am making for the annual auction at DH's fly tying club. All the cards are made from kraft cardstock in the hope that this 'ties' the collection together!

Thanks for visiting today and be sure to come back tomorrow to see my DT post for Sheila at She's a Sassy Lady. : ) Christine

Thursday, February 19, 2015

I haven't been able to enter the BBTB2 challenge for a while and was determined to do so when I saw this weeks challenge - create a shaped card. I was in need of a simple thank you card and went in search of a chunky 'Thank You' in Design Space to use on my card. I found 'Thanks A Bunch' on the Wild Card 2 cart and brought it onto my canvas.

Then it was easy peasy lemon squeezy to duplicate the shadow layer and flip it to make the back of the card. I moved the two images until the T's overlapped and found that I had to add two small rectangles between the two h's and the two k's so that my card would fold. Here's the welded shape.

Since it said "Thanks a Bunch" I chose to embellish it with rolled flowers cut from the CTMH Art Philosophy cart. (Wild Card 2 uses bananas wouldn't that would be fun?) Wild Card 2 has tons of sentiments that can be made into shaped cards, so I can see myself adding a few to my stash.

Pop over to the BBTB blog and look at some of the other fun shaped cards. I love Brenda's birdcage and Carolyn's Frozen castle. Thanks for visiting with me today. : ) Christine

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

My nephew turns 40 in October and since we will be in the UK at the time and hopefully, able to celebrate / commiserate with him, I browsed through Design Space looking for a suitable card to make.

I found this one in 'Simple Cards' and cut it in black for an 'over the hill' feel. It reminds me of a wrought iron graveyard gate. LOL! Just to emphasize his great age, I used this wonderful paper that resembles newsprint from the '50s, as a liner.

I added the '40' and the inside sentiments (from 'Life's a Party' and 'Smiley Cards') in bright orange. O.K! I'll admit that I had way too much fun making this card! Hope he likes it. : )

This week, the BBTB2 challenge is "Celebrating Cricut" and this week we Explore owners have a lot to celebrate with the announcement of the Print Then Cut feature going live on September 22nd. And, since I have a registered Imagine machine, all the images from the I carts will be available for PTC. Woo Hoo! Thank you Provo Craft.

Friday, July 25, 2014

The summer prior to my last year of teaching, I decided that I would do something that I'd always wanted to do - give my classroom a theme! I chose 'owls' and had a ball decorating, labeling and embellishing. Since I had 40+ Kinders, I used every Cricut owl image I could find. What I didn't anticipate was all the cute little owl themed gifts the parents found for Teacher Appreciation Day and the holidays! Fun!!!!

The challenge over at Bitten By The Bug 2, this week, is to use an owl on your project. Using 'All Images' on Design Space, I searched for an owl that I hadn't ever used and I found one on the CTMH Artiste cart. He is such a colorful party animal that I needed to put him on a birthday card.

The trifold card comes from Wild Card and is cut at a height of 5 inches. The owl on the front comes from Live Simply, and the sentiment, from Hoot n Holler. I had to leave the outside clean and simple because I wanted to use my Explore to write on the inner part of the card.

The inner liner paper actually has a couple of owls on it but unfortunately, they got covered up! And, the paper is so busy that the party confetti I cut disappeared into the background. A scattering of sequins saved the day.

This was such a fun challenge. Pop over to BBTB2 and admire the variety of owls that the DT utilized. : ) Thanks for visiting with me today. Christine : )

Friday, May 9, 2014

Here's the first of my Mother's Day cards. I usually make two - one for my DD and one for my DDIL. (I will buy a posy of flowers for DD # 2 in memory of our angel GC)

The family traditionally has brunch at DH's Golf Club and the DGDs salivate over the menu in the weeks prior to the occasion and make plans to eat all their favorites. Lovely!

I tried my hand at a trifold shutter card at Christmas following a pattern from SVGCuts. This time I imported the file into Design Space and used the Explore to cut the pieces. The roses were cut from Art Nouveau and the sentiment phrase comes from Florals Embellished. I used the Explore to write the outline of the phrase and then colored it in with glitter pens. The paper is from Graphic 45, of course.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

I have had this Lori Whitlock svg for a never ending card for ages and every time I opened it up, it looked too complicated to mess with. On Saturday, National Scrapbooking Day, I was determined to just do it!

I cut out the card with scrap paper and after watching Lori's Youtube video, I was able to put it together. Sooooo cool!

O. K. Time for the real thing - a card for my DS's birthday. I abandoned the svg and using Lori's measurements, I cut the card using my paper trimmer since I needed to use specific images to decorate the card. To save time, I cut a square mask, placed it on the Good Ol' Sports papers, drew round the inside and cut it out! Easy peasy.

I decided to cut a band to hold the card together and added a label from Preserves and the sentiment 'Happy Birthday' from Wild Card 2. There are so many layers and such dimension to this cut that it looks like chipboard when it's all put together. I'll be using this image again!

The challenge at FCCB
this week is to use patterned paper. All wight! (As Master J is wont to say!) Thanks for visiting with me today. And try a never ending card yourself! : ) Christine

Monday, May 5, 2014

Saturday was National Scrapbooking Day and I spent most of the day 'playing' in my Craft Room, browsing the 'net and visiting Craft Warehouse. A perfect 'me' day!
My Cricut Circle sisters coordinated 2 days of challenges, tutorials and sharing and fun! I learned so, so, much.

One of the first challenges was to make a project for a guy and you can see Diane's fabulous wallet mini here.

Awe inspiring and jaw dropping! I love this Good Ol' Sports Graphic 45 stack and have a project to share with you later, made with this paper pack.

I was able to combine this challenge with a project that was on my to - do list and again the card was inspired by one on Pinterest that used Stampin' Up products. I used 'Animal Antics' for the background scene but replaced the trees with less cartoonish, more realistic cuts. The elk and wolf come from 'Outdoor Man.'

This was a fun card to make and the BEST part was that when DH saw it he asked me to make one exactly like it for his friend's birthday in June. He specified the exact same colors and papers. Aghhh! My hope is that he won't remember the exact same colors and papers by the time June rolls around and I can tweak it a little!

Friday, March 14, 2014

For the last few years, the winds of change have fairly howled through the Education world and affected even those at the youngest levels. I could not resist buying this stamp from Verve because it was the mantra I repeated to myself when 'they' insisted on my teaching as though my five year olds were mini high schoolers!

Then, of course, when you've bought the stamp, you have to do something with it and here's my card of encouragement for a former colleague who is in danger of being capsized! The card comes from Wild Card 2, and the ship from the San Francisco digital set. The compass comes from the New England Shore digital set and the mat for the stamp from Elegant Edges.

See how sneaky that Cricut is? I only own one of these carts but LOVE having access to most of the images in the library through my trial subscription. I can see an increase in my crafting budget will be necessary! Thanks for visiting with me today. : ) Christine

By the way, Grandma got a bit sneakier today. Here is what Master J is doing at the moment - he's fast asleep! : )

Monday, March 10, 2014

It's a dull, grey rainy day. (DH and I are going to cheer ourselves up with a run to Costco this afternoon for some retail therapy!) Trying to take pics of my latest card would be impossible without the light box my DD lent me. Thank you KJ!

Today, I have been figuring out how to 'attach' with the Design Space software so that my images cut as I have arranged them on the canvas. If I don't 'attach' then the software puts the images all in the top corner and that, obviously, was not what I wanted! I also played with the alignment on the X and Y axis to get them lined up.

Inside the card, the Explore used an American Crafts fine point Slick Marker to write the words from the St. Patrick's Day subway art in Word Collage. The "Lucky Day" cut comes from the Phrases cart. This was such a fun card to put together!

Today's challenge on the Exploring Cricut and More blog, is called "The Luck of the Irish" and we are asked to include a shamrock. I guess I did that and more!

The challenge at BBTB2 blog, is a St. Patrick's Day project. We're all using up our stash of green paper for sure!

Right! Off to Costco, we go. Hope you have a lucky day! Thanks for visiting with me.
: ) Christine

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Master J was here yesterday and we 'crafted' together. He sat in his high chair and tried to decide which hand to hold the crayon in, dropped his paper on the floor (this is a good game Grandma!), and discovered that if he put the crayon in his mouth, Grandma gave him a teeny, tiny Teddy Graham! I sat next to him at the kitchen table and played with my February card kit from Simon Says Stamp. Here's my "Thinking of you" card -

and here's the rest of the story!

My delightful DGDs were here on Sunday afternoon, (with Mom and Dad!) and S was wearing a beautiful, sparkly sequined shirt in a lovely color between teal and turquoise. After they left, we found that S had shared her sequins with us upstairs and downstairs and all around the house! LOL! It was like following a trail as we picked up as many as we could find and I considered, briefly, doing the same thing with gold sequins for the DGDs on St. Pat's Day.

If you look carefully at the centers of the stamped and fussy cut flowers, you will see SOME of the sequins on their way back to Miss S! Thanks for visiting with me today. : ) Christine

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Both DGDs have been sick this week. : ( This sparked some reminiscing between DH and myself about being sick when we were children. It soon took on the tone of "three miles to school and back, through the snow, in bare feet" and we had to laugh! Children were relegated to bed to rest and recuperate on spoonfuls of broth and glasses and glasses of Robinson's Lemon Barley water! If you were lucky, you were permitted to read a book. No TV, games, or apps to entertain and distract as you suffered!

This image from the Imagine cart 'The Good Old Days!' (Uh, right!) popped in my head and I set out to make a get well card for the Bitten by the Bug 2 - Get Well challenge. You can see the DT's fabulous designs here.

I am not too comfortable with creating 'vintage' although I love the look. Hopefully, paper from MME and lots of inking helped with the look and feel. (I seem to be on a yellow kick, don't I?)
The book comes from another image on the cart, and I played with the colors a bit as the original was just too pink! I had fun making this card and thank you for visiting with me today. : ) Christine

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Cocoa is NOT happy with me today! Here in the PNW we have, thankfully, escaped the effects of the Polar Vortex but have endured a typically wet and soggy winter week instead. I played in my craft room for most of the day supposedly reorganizing my clear stamp collection but actually making this birthday card for a three year old. Cocoa finds the craft room very boring!

I do like cascade cards. There are 6 little vignettes contributing to one interesting whole. KWIM? Each Bear represents a stage in the life of the three year old and it was fun putting together the baby, and the toddler in her nightgown and bunny slippers, and the little birthday girl with her pink dress and cupcake. I used the font from A Child's Year for the numbers on the cup cakes. The 'bear' sentiments come from MCT.

This weeks' challenge over at Fabulous Cricut Challenge Blog is use a sentiment.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

This retirement thing is taking some getting used to! I would usually be back at work today trying to help the Kinders understand the idea of a 'resolution' and then helping them write their own. ("Not bug my brother" was one they often came up with through the years. Bet that lasted maybe 5 seconds! LOL!)

We always made a glittery poster featuring the year and here is my grown - up version on my first ever New Year's Card! One of my favorite 'Friends' episodes is the one where Monica and Ross dance on Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve TV show - or at least they try to! I love Ross' robot dance, hence the dancing robot on my card.

I used paper from My Mind's Eye and the DCWV Glitsy Glitter pack and the font and robot come from the Robotz Cricut cart. 'Happy New Year' comes from the Wild Card cart and since there is no font shadow, I cut it twice and offset them to make the sentiment 'pop!'

Monday, December 30, 2013

I have a scrapbooking friend who creates wonderful layouts! Last Summer she helped me with some of the pages that I did for S and G, and on Christmas Day, I opened up a wonderful package stuffed with crafting goodies that she had mailed to me. Yeah!

Here's the 'Thank You!' card I made this morning for my friend. (I've had this idea in my head for a patchwork stocking for months. Thank goodness it is now out and I can get on with other stuff! KWIM?)

The stocking shape is from Echo Park in the Silhouette store. I could have used any of the Cricut Christmas carts but I find it easier to duplicate, align and weld with the Cameo software and I needed to make the top of the stocking open up to add my sentiment. Hope you can stand one more hexagon card!

Sunday, December 1, 2013

when DH announces that it is time to send out the Christmas cards to friends and family overseas and the resident card crafter is still making THANKSGIVING cards? Why, run right over to SVG cuts and download their Merry and Bright files!

I love this first one because it uses scraps and like everyone else, I have boxes of scraps! I added glittery tulle and sequins since I thought this design had a 'quilt' feel to it.

The 'JOY' shaped card came together quite quickly and is easy to mass produce although since I am quite incapable of making two cards exactly alike, embellishing took a little extra time.

The painters are coming in tomorrow, so I will be staying out of the way and crafting in my room. What a sacrifice! LOL! Thanks for visiting with me today. : ) Christine

Sunday, November 24, 2013

is quite nostalgic! I made several 'quilt' cards way back before I bought my first Cricut but could NEVER get the pieces to fit together nicely. I was reminded of this technique by Mary at CardzTV and as I have a friend or two who quilt, I resolved to try to make a Christmas quilt card.

The idea of a button and thread on the center square is totally scraplifted from Mary and was a much nicer (and easier) embellishment than the faux stitching and knots I used to do. I added a holly sprig from Winter Wonderland as this seems to be my favorite die cut this year and I have quite a few made up ahead of time. (They are easily put together when the resident football fan has possession of the TV remote!)

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

We had quite the PNW rain storm yesterday but that did not deter DH from taking the drift boat out to fish on the Lewis River! After Dinner, he sat by a roaring fire drying his rods, line, and tackle boxes while watching Monday night football and I escaped to the craft room to get this card out of my head and onto paper!

My three DGC are enamored with Ylvis and the video "What does the fox say?" (I like it too!) I have been seeing fox cards on Pinterest and wanted to make one for J with an interactive element. This is my first try at a teepee card and I love that there are THREE surfaces to decorate! I used Create a Critter for the fox and the turkey - who is on an action wobble, and the stamp comes from CardzTV.

I am linking my project with

"Count Your Blessings"

challenge at 'Exploring Cricut'

Animal Crackers: Use an Animal

challenge at 'Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog'

and the challenge at Bitten by the Bug 2

You're a Turkey - Turkey Challenge

Thanks for visiting with me today! Stay dry! : ) Christine

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Last year I wanted to make a star fold card for my DSIL to wish him a 'Happy Hanukkah' but 45 report cards kinda got in the way! So last night I went up to the craft room determined to figure it out.
I wanted the height of the equilateral triangle to be 6 inches and knew the angles had to be 60 degrees but where to go from there? DH to the rescue and had it all worked out to 3 decimal places. Three decimal places? And where was the protractor?
After wasting several sheets from my ugly paper stash, I did what I should have done to start with and looked it up on the Internet. Peggy, at Daily Grace Creations had a tutorial here and with a bit of tweaking, it worked! And here it is, sparkly DCWV paper and all!

Cool, huh? Now, the first day of Hanukkah falls on Thanksgiving this year and I found this little image on the Silhouette on-line store. DSIL has a great sense of humor and will enjoy this sentiment - I hope!

Well, time to put the roast beef in the oven and bake a carrot cake - courtesy of Mr. Duncan Hines! Enjoy the weekend! Thanks for visiting with me today. : ) Christine